


Crypt Key

by amethystinesaint



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Shadowkeep spoilers, pyramid visions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-12-01 22:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20916893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amethystinesaint/pseuds/amethystinesaint
Summary: After witnessing the true purpose of the Pyramid, Ava and her fireteam realize that it brings horrors in many forms.





	Crypt Key

**Author's Note:**

> anybody else in this thread uhhhhh terrified of the pyramids

"It's all happened before. So many times. It's happened so many times before, and we never even knew."

"Exodus, what the hell are you talking about?" Tamara laughed, with a tinge of unease in her voice. They sat in Ava's ship, still recovering from the ordeal on the Moon. He'd been silent ever since their mass vision, which wasn't unlike him, but he almost seemed to be brooding. 

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." His voice was sharp, but flat. "The Traveler's visited so many failed races. The Fallen were far from the first. I've seen what the Darkness did to them. Their ligaments tearing, blood boiling, bones snapping, exoskeletons cracking, they showed me. I've seen how it ends. Why did we think we'd be different?" He held his head in his hands as he spoke, staring down at the floor. 

"Is this about what the Pyramid showed you?" She had her legs propped up on a table, but brought them down to brace herself for this conversation. "Listen, you know that was nothing. It's trying to trick you. I didn't even see anything like that."

"No. No, that's not it. We saw it in the Vault, remember? We saw all those doomed timelines. I thought it was a- a curiosity, at most. But now I know what they were trying to show me." Exodus looked up at her now, his voice still flat and his eyes bright. "What you saw-"

"You know damn well not to talk about that, Exodus." She scowled, her face flush with anger. 

"You know it's true. It'll happen again, and we won't be the last." Staying silent for a moment, he brought his head up in sudden realization. "Not unlike the Curse." He looked up at Ava, eyes wide and wild. She glared back at him. "Excuse me," he blurted, getting to his feet and transmatting a notebook into his hand. "I have some things to attend to."

Before leaving, his Ghost appeared in a flash, her dull brown shell fluttering frantically.

"Pazuzu, what the hell was that about?" Tamara asked quietly, but the anger still coming through in her voice. Standing beside her, Ava put a hand on her shoulder. 

"I- I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know what the Pyramid showed him, but… It got to him." She sighed, shell folding into a look of embarrassment. "I'll talk to him." She quickly dashed away, catching up to her Guardian.

Later that night they lay in bed, knowing that nightmares both physical and otherwise would haunt them if they slept. Being on the Moon had been so perversely exhausting. Ava still couldn't help but feel vulnerable in normal clothes, despite being thousands of miles away in orbit.

"What did he mean about what you saw in the Vault?" She asked as delicately as she could; she'd never seen Tamara so angry at anyone, let alone be angry to begin with.

Tamara sighed, and took a deep breath. "When we were there, I… I got lost in the Gorgon maze for… I don't even know how long. The rest of 'em said it was just for a minute, but I don't know." She swallowed hard. "In there I saw all of my other selves, across every timeline. Sometimes I was a Guardian, sometimes not. In every single one, they showed me how I died." She rolled over to face Ava, but her eyes couldn't meet her face. "Death doesn't scare me, but… How am I supposed to know which one of them is what's gonna happen to me?"

Ava stayed silent for a few moments. "I'm sorry." she whispered, not knowing what else to say. "Maybe none of them were yours. We're the one thing the Vex can't calculate, after all." Tamara just hummed in response, clutching Ava closer to her.

As she awoke, she knew something was off, somehow. She hadn't remembered falling asleep last night - she almost never slept. When she saw the red glare on the opposite side of the room, she knew why every nerve of hers was screaming at her. In a panic she bolted up, backing up against the wall. She knew all too well the silhouette of the figure - she'd made that armor herself. 

"Ouros?" 

Yawning, Tamara responded with a groggy "Who's that?" before meeting her gaze on the phantom. She bolted out of bed, pulling a knife from her discarded boots, but when she turned to face it, it vanished into mist. With a heavy sigh she tossed the knife back onto the bed before rushing over to Ava. "Who… What was that?"

A shudder ran through Ava's body. She still stared at the spot the ghost was, waiting for it to come back. It took a few moments for her to register the question, her mind still shaken. "That… was Ouros." She took a deep breath and sat on the edge of the bed, still watching for the ghost's return. "She was our Magistrate. I can't believe… I can't believe it'd use that against me." There was so much more she could say about her, but bringing up those memories wasn't worth it. She hated feeling like she was being toyed with. 

Tamara sat next to her, her heart finally starting to relax. "God, I'm… I'm sorry." She couldn't help but imagine how she'd feel, seeing the ghost of Cayde. It wasn't the same, but she could imagine how Ava felt. She laid back and sighed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. 

"We need a fucking break from the Moon."


End file.
